Keep What You Kill
Dame Vaako dragged Min back to the throne room and bullied the guards outside it to let her in. "Poise, Min," Vaako whispered to her again. Min stood straighter, with her head high and a slight open-mouthed smile on her lips.
Vaako led her regally into the room. Very little had changed in twenty minutes. The Witch and the man Riddick -Furyan if Lady Vaako was to be believed- were still arguing. She spoke calmly, while his low voice was barely restrained anger, and exhaustion. Lord Vaako seemed nearly in awe of the man and seemed to be trying to persuade him. The other Commanders stood apart. The dead girl was still on the floor where the Riddick threw grieving looks. Thankfully, the Lord Marshal's body had been removed.
"You keep what you kill," Dame Vaako interjected melodiously. Riddick glared at the interruption and Min dropped her eyes quickly. Those blue eyes! Furyan, indeed!
"The Purifier is dead," Dame Vaako continued flatly.
The Riddick was slow to respond. "He is dead."
Dame Vaako's smile was that of early victory. "This," she thrust Min forward, "is now yours as well."
Min started to hunch her shoulders but Vaako was too fast, prodding her in the back and hissing, "Poise, Min." Min stood straighter but kept her eyes on the floor.
"Lord Riddick, this is MinFerrin, the Purifier's concubine, now yours." Dame Vaako's voice seemed to irritate the Riddick as much as it did Min. "She's a simpleton, but lovely, don't you think?"
The Riddick merely turned away impatiently, dismissing the entire idea but Dame Vaako wasn't stymied at all. As she went on pleasantly touting all the wonders he had inherited by becoming Lord Marshal, Min faded back slowly. The Witch was paying too much attention to Min, but then the argument between Dame Vaako and the Riddick drew her away again. Min breathed a little sigh of relief and looked for a way to wipe her lips and escape the room. She needed time to think, to escape the ship if she could, if her protector… was really dead.
Her eyes fell on the body of the dead girl. Min eased her way nearer. If the Riddick was protective of the girl… "Poor girl, poor girl," she whispered quietly to no-one as she got closer. The movement caught Riddick's eye, but the Witch was between them so Min moved a little closer. She sat near the dead girl and stroked her hair whispering, "Poor girl, poor little girl…"
From the corner of her eye, she saw the Riddick wave a hand her way. "Get away from her," he growled.
One of the few remaining guards moved towards her and reached to pull her away. Min seized the opportunity to foil Dame Vaako. She bit the guard hard on the hand and tried to wipe her lips off on his skin. The guard howled and pulled away. Min scrambled around the body and huddled protectively over it, whispering again, "Poor girl, poor girl." When the guard reached again, Min picked up her head and bared her teeth in an open-mouth growl that ended in a hiss, drawing the second guard towards them.
"Just leave her." The Riddick sighed, and the guards complied.
Min brushed and stroked the dead girl's hair, humming and occasionally whispering, "Poor girl."
She knew the Riddick was watching her and Dame Vaako was looking on in approval. It probably wasn't what Dame Vaako had expected Min to do to gain the Riddick's favor, but Min knew she'd calculated it right. She glanced up and looked him in the eye with a small sad smile before letting her eyes wander again. He turned away slowly and Min hummed tunelessly and began to braid a lock of the girl's hair.
The guard she'd bitten was beginning to sweat profusely. Min suddenly wanted out of the room, but she had to play her part. The conflict between the Witch and the Riddick seemed to be drawing to a close; the Witch's whole shimmering body seemed to say victory. Min knew the Witch was depending on the Riddick to get her out of the ship safely too. If he tried to abdicate his title and leave, they would kill him and the Witch if they could. If he just stayed to rule them, he would be safe. He seemed inclined to fight them all, but Min could see his exhaustion as clearly as Dame Vaako's malice and the Witch's smugness.
"Fine," he said finally. "Take me to my rooms." Min breathed a sigh of relief as she finished the braid because the guard was teetering. The Riddick started to walk towards the main door but turned and looked back towards Min. "Bring the girl," he said, just as the guard fell dead. Dame Vaako suddenly looked as if she'd been trumped, but didn't dare show her anger. "Bury the girl on the planet." The Riddick looked at Dame Vaako penetratingly before turning away.
Min scrambled up before Vaako could turn on her and eluded the next nearest guard. "Poor girl…" Min kept up her rambling and did her best to put space between her and the Witch. The Riddick was already out the door, led by Lord Vaako, when the Witch used her powers to close on Min. The ghostly apparition that suddenly confronted Min was the break she needed. Min froze and looked frightened. As the Witch solidified and Dame Vaako closed the gap, Min shrieked and bolted for the door. She dodged the men trying to grab her and made it into the vast hallway.
Ahead, the Riddick paused at the scream. He and Lord Vaako turned just as Min fled the throne room, dodging around another guard and arrowing for the shadows cast by the hall's architecture. As the Witch breezed through the doors, Min scuttled further away and closer to the Riddick and Lord Vaako. The guards closed in and she dodged them again.
The Riddick laughed out loud. "The great armies at my command… can't catch a simple girl."
Lord Vaako's lips pressed into a tight line. "MinFerrin," he barked. "Come here."
Min slipped quietly forward while the guards searched behind her before sheepishly stepping into the light near Lord Vaako. The Riddick had followed her progress but the rest hadn't. Interesting, she thought to herself.
"Yes, Lord Vaako." Min kept her head down and let her voice waiver in fear.
"Follow us," was all he told her.
Min followed in her usual annoying manner: humming and swinging her arms like a child and letting her eyes wander as if seeing things the others did not. But she was sneaking glances at the man Riddick. She occasionally stopped to have a brief word with some invisible entity before Lord Vaako called her back. The man, the Furyan, Riddick didn't seem to be paying too much attention to her, but Vaako was getting annoyed to beat hell. That suited Min just fine, though he didn't bother her as much as the other Lords. Min was careful to keep as far away as possible from the Witch who followed the retinue.
At the Lord Marshal's, suite a bridge tech reset the code for the new Marshall. And while Min seemed to be chasing butterflies, she was watching and memorizing the code. She thought maybe the Riddick might have caught her looking but she couldn't be sure. She had learned a lot of codes this way. The 'Mongers had learned to ignore her presence.
Inside, Vaako wanted to give the new Lord a tour, but the Riddick sent them all away protesting, including the Witch, and voice-locked the door. But Min was in, and wandering in her aimless way- while actually looking carefully for secret eyes and ears.
The Riddick threw himself on one of the lavish suite's many couches and put his hands to his head, elbows on his knees, and sighed deeply. His shoulders shook slightly and Min guessed he was grieving the girl. She moved off quietly to explore an area of the ship she'd never been in before: the Lord Marshal's private quarters.